Minnesota courthouse workers share $250,000 Powerball lottery prize

MINNESOTA COURTHOUSE WORKERS SHARE $250,000 POWERBALL LOTTERY PRIZE

A group of 22 co-workers from a courthouse in Hibbing, Minnesota, have shared a huge $250,000 on the Powerball lottery.The group of lottery winners admitted that there was a fair amount of cheers and cries of jubilation at the St Louis County Courthouse on Thursday, January 11th, but it was the syndicate finding out they’d won the Powerball. The facilities manager, Angie Baumchen, told lottery officials that she was in her office and could hear the group of colleagues shouting from upstairs. Another Minnesota Powerball winner claimed her $50,000 prize last year, just one day before the deadline.The Powerball syndicate matched four out of the five main numbers plus the Powerball in the drawing on January 10th, winning them a total prize fun of $250,000. The winnings numbers on that particular draw were 7, 24, 33, 49 and 50, and the Powerball number was 4.An Irish syndicate, also of 22 people, recently won in two EuroMillions draws in the same week. Each of the 22 Powerball winners will receive $7,500 after taxes are withdrawn, and it was Grant Ellis, the head janitor at the courthouse, who purchased the winning ticket on the day of the drawing from Hibbing Short Stop II, a lottery retailer across the street from the courthouse. Usually, the syndicate draws a name from a hat to decide who will make the purchase each week, but on this particular occasion, Mr Ellis said he decided to take the responsibility. The syndicate leader of a group of hospital workers didn’t believe that her group’s win on the Health Lottery was real, and so kept it a secret from them until she found out for sure.“Me, a lucky person? No, it doesn’t seem like it,” Mr Ellis told lottery officials, while his colleagues disagreed. “If I were lucky, we’d be signing for $31 million,” he joked, referring to the Powerball jackpot value on that day. A lottery player insisted she wasn’t a lucky person despite winning $150,000 on the EuroMillions.Just like a man from Illinois who had been buying lottery tickets in bulk for 15 years, the colleagues have been playing together for 15 years, and at one point there were 53 people in the group. “Others wanted in, and then others left,” said Mr Ellis. “So, we’ve picked some people up on the way, and have lost others too.” The group all plan to attend Minnesota Lottery headquarters on Friday, January 19th to claim their Powerball prize.If you fancy getting yourself in on the winning, give yourself a chance by playing online now at Lottery24.com.